The Powerof Words Still Matter as Much as They Did a Decade Ago

Now unless you have been on a complete detox from for anyone from watching the news during this month will have no doubt seen the news footage of riots in the UK, these included riots in Southport following a fatal attack at dance event in which three young females were killed. Over the course of the following days multiple riots happened up and down the country, one of the most recent being on the 5th August 2024.

When I looked at the first incident and the ones that followed it reminded me of the London Riots of 2011 which began with the police shooting a man. It’s what happened after that which caused a tidal wave of misery, despair, anger and rage as the riots had spilled out from London and had spread to other parks of the UK to places such as Derby, Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham.

2011 England riots

To look at what happened then and compare it to what’s happened recently a lot of it was because of people putting posts on social media, trying to copy what happened in London. 

Basically people decided to put posts on social media platforms to try and encourage others to start massive riots.

2024 United Kingdom riots

In 1839 English Writer and Politician, Edward Bulwer-Lytton first penned the infamous saying 

“The pen is mightier than the sword”

The meaning behind this is that words, either written or spoken, can have far greater power than any physical power. I’ll give you an example;

Nelson Mandela

Mandela’s writings inspired millions to seek peaceful solutions to conflicts

Thomas Jefferson

The Declaration of Independence, written by Jefferson, established the foundation for a new nation

Yet with physical power it can take a lot of violence and death to bring about changes, quite often through incitement of fear.

And this is one of the reasons why language really does matter when it comes to periods of political and social unrest, especially when anger and fear are involved. Then of course add platforms like Twitter/X and Facebook into the mix then those words can reach bigger distances only a mere few seconds after you’ve clicked Post.

And that’s all it takes.

All it was said to have taken this time was for a post on social media sites claiming that an attacker was of a certain religion and/or migrant. One wrong word in the wrong place in the online domain can lead to some very big consequences, sometimes which can be dire.

This is where Misinformation and Disinformation comes into it. This also has power to change perceptions, thoughts and opinions but that’s more to with people either not getting the facts 100% or saying something they know is complete and utter garbage.

One of the most recent ones this month was to do with information being put out which turned out to not be truthful. This, I think, is where the pen is mightier than the sword saying has basically been weaponised in that someone, be it an individual or group, put out a statement which has not been fact checked or deliberately falsified has been posted to incite trouble.

Welcome to the dark side of social media and where dishonesty and inaccuracy are just as powerful as hope and encouragement.

Over the past few years platforms such as Twitter/X and Facebook just seem to have become something of a safe haven for people to spread hatred and mistrust, and in some instances threats of death. Even I have come across various types of language like it, and some has been aimed directly at me though occasionally I do challenge people over it or mock it from time to time.

I know that I am not the only one who thinks this as I know that others have experienced it. I have even read articles and columns by others who have been open about their own experiences of it. In some ways I strongly believe that various social media sites are basically just online classrooms and school playgrounds where umpteen people a day leave all sorts of messages, sometimes where the language is very much colourful (but not in the nice way).

If however you still think that this is not the case then I challenge you to look at the rioting, carnage, devastation and upset caused by all the fighting in 2011 and recently. Check out just how much written language was used in the escalation, how much social media was involved in spreading this problem. 

All these factors together are a guaranteed recipe for a massive social problem, and unless we watch what we say, watch what we post and get our facts right we’re just going to create a vicious cycle which’ll be really hard to break